Mob psychology, a conversation with an intelligent computer, and audience participation all numbered among the tactics used by six MIT professors Wednesday evening at MIT Hillel’s Sixth Annual Latke vs. Hamentashen Debate.

Three prominent American universities the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University — are starting five-year partnerships, worth $25 million or more, with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate-level research university being built in Saudi Arabia.

With the two Democratic presidential candidates in near-deadlock and battling for every delegate, party leaders and the rival campaigns started searching in earnest on Thursday for a way to seat delegations from Florida and Michigan. But they remained deeply divided over how to do so.

The credit markets came under renewed stress on Thursday as investors sought absolute safety and even moved away from debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage lending enterprises.

A Russian businessman regarded by the United States as one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers was arrested in Thailand on Thursday as part of an American-led sting operation. He was promptly charged in the United States with conspiracy for attempting to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to rebels in Colombia.

Two bombs struck a bustling shopping district in the heart of Baghdad on Thursday evening, turning display windows and cabinets and glass shelves into deadly shrapnel and killing 54 people and wounding 123 more, the Iraqi authorities said.

Reeling from the high cost of fighting wildfires, federal land agencies have been imposing new fees and increasing existing ones at recreation sites across the West in an effort to raise tens of millions of dollars.

A gunman entered a famous Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem on Thursday night, killing at least eight students and wounding at least nine others, three of them seriously, the Israeli police said.

There have been eight straight weekends in Boston with at least one drop of precipitation. This weekend will certainly be no exception. Although it is sunny during the daytime hours today, rain will be moving in later tonight. Not only will this possibly impact your Friday night plans, but due to the size of the precipitating region, this storm will also rain-in on your Saturday night activities as well.

Responding to a wave of defective toys and other goods, the Senate approved a measure on Thursday that would overhaul the country’s consumer product laws and strengthen the beleaguered safety agency that oversees the marketplace.

By
Mar. 7, 2008

Jhumpa Lahiri isn’t the sort of writer who shies away from her heritage. Her writing is replete with details of the Indian-American experience, peppered with references to Raj Kapoor and salwar kameez, because she writes about what she knows. But to say that her stories are primarily about an ethnic-American experience seems to severely limit the scope of Lahiri’s writing. Her stories aren’t about immigrant families, but families in general. On March 4th, in front of a crowd that was spilling out of 32-123, Lahiri reinforced this resistance to the labels that frequently hamper writers such as her. She offered the audience a writing style that is crisp, discerning, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has struggled to reconcile generations and cultures, but also, parents and children.

I’m a fanatical appreciator of absolutely everything Stephen Malkmus has ever created, but such laudatory devotion should not be taken as accepting passivity on my behalf. I like his past efforts in very different ways. Pavement, the band with which Malkmus attained the status of “Clown Prince of Indie Rock,” seems (analogously, of course) like a silly but sexy teenage girl next door. Malkmus’ literary and sardonic ramblings, inextricably combined with the expert sloppiness of the rest of the group, shouted, “We don’t give a fuck, and we’re damn good anyway.”

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Mar. 7, 2008

The women’s water polo club opened their season last weekend at Bates College, going 4-0 in a tournament that featured North Atlantic Division rivals. The Engineers defeated Wellesley College (10-8), Bates College (13-4), Boston University (10-4), and Bowdoin College (13-3).

The MIT Figure Skating Club placed seventh out of thirteen competitors at an intercollegiate figure skating competition held at the University of Delaware last weekend. Saja A. Fakhraldeen ’09, Kachina C. Gosselin ’10, and Jingyi “Cynthia” Tang ’09 placed 4th, 6th, and 7th respectively out of eight skaters at the Preliminary Freestyle level.

The University of Connecticut used a late six-goal outburst to overpower MIT and claim a 6-1 victory in the NorthEast Collegiate Hockey Association Conference A Championship on Sunday afternoon at the Conway Arena in Nashua, N.H. The Engineers’ bid to attain the conference crown was thwarted for a second straight season, as MIT fell to Bryant University in the title game last year.

The Synchronized Swimming Club took seventh place at the East Collegiate Regional Championships with a combined score of 41.5 points last weekend at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Canisius College’s varsity team, which has regularly placed high nationally, finished first with a score of 100 points. Keuka College placed second with a score of 80 points, followed by Wheaton College’s varsity team (77) and Boston University’s club team (57).

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Mar. 7, 2008

By
Mar. 7, 2008

A couple days after last week’s column came out, we overheard a group of unsuspecting critics reading the article on Tech Shuttle and comparing thoughts. We were confronted with overheard questions like, “why would they include drinking a glass of water?” and “what the **** does exfoliating mean?” So, we duly apologize for not explaining ourselves thoroughly and hope to do so this week.